Breakdown of Bu genç adam aslan gibi cesur.
bu
this
adam
man
genç
young
gibi
like (similar to)
aslan
lion
cesur
brave
Questions & Answers about Bu genç adam aslan gibi cesur.
Why is the order aslan gibi cesur instead of cesur gibi aslan?
In Turkish, the word gibi (like) is a postposition, which means it always comes after the noun it is comparing to. You first say the noun (aslan), then gibi, and finally the adjective that describes the comparison (cesur). So "brave like a lion" is literally built as "lion-like brave".
If I wanted to say "brave like me", would I just say ben gibi cesur?
No, because personal pronouns work a bit differently with gibi. For pronouns like ben, sen, and o, you must use their possessive forms (benim, senin, onun). So "brave like me" is benim gibi cesur. But as we see in this sentence, regular nouns like aslan (lion) just stay in their plain, dictionary form before gibi.
Where is the verb "is" in this sentence?
It is implied! In Turkish, when stating a fact about a third person (he/she/it/this), the "to be" suffix (-dır / -dir) is often dropped, especially in everyday spoken language. You could write cesurdur, but simply ending with the adjective cesur is completely correct and naturally translates to "is brave".
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